Chapter XXX.

That no determination should be made on those things
which concern the needs of the common life.

And therefore a monk
ought not hastily to make any promise on those things which merely
concern bodily exercise, for fear lest he may stir up the enemy still
more to attack what he is keeping as it were under the observance of
the law, and so he may be more readily compelled to break it. Since
every one who lives under the grace of liberty, and sets himself a law,
thereby binds himself in a dangerous slavery, so that if by chance
necessity constrains him to do what he might have ventured on lawfully,
and indeed laudably and with thanksgiving, he is forced to act as a
transgressor, and to fall into sin: “for where there is no law
there is no transgression.”20682068Rom. iv. 15.

By this instruction and the teaching of the blessed
Joseph we were confirmed as by a Divine oracle and made up our minds to
stop in Egypt. But though henceforward we were but a little anxious
about our promise, yet when seven years were over we were very glad to
fulfil it. For we hastened to our monastery, at a time when we were
confident of obtaining permission to return to the desert, and first
paid our respects properly to our Elders; next we revived the former
love in their minds as out of the ardour of their love they had not
been at all softened by our very frequent letters to satisfy them, and
in the last place, we entirely removed the sting of our broken promise
and returned to the recesses of the desert of Scete, as they themselves
forwarded us with joy.

This learning and doctrine of the illustrious fathers,
our ignorance, O holy brother, has to the best of its ability made
plain to you. And if perhaps our clumsy style has confused it instead
of setting it in order, I trust that the blame which our clumsiness
deserves will not interfere with the praise due to these grand
474men. Since it seemed to us a
safer course in the sight of our Judge to state even in unadorned style
this splendid doctrine rather than to hold our tongues about it, since
if he considers the grandeur of the thoughts, the fact that the
awkwardness of our style annoys him, need not be prejudicial to the
profit of the reader, and for our part we are more anxious about its
usefulness than its being praised. This at least I charge all those
into whose hand this little book may fall; viz., that they must know
that whatever in it pleases them belongs to the fathers, and whatever
they dislike is all our own.20692069 In this last chapter
Cassian certainly makes his own the sentiments of Abbot Joseph on the
permissibility of lying; and is therefore not unreasonably attacked for
the teaching of this Conference by Prosper. “Contra
Collatorem,” c. ix.

2069 In this last chapter
Cassian certainly makes his own the sentiments of Abbot Joseph on the
permissibility of lying; and is therefore not unreasonably attacked for
the teaching of this Conference by Prosper. “Contra
Collatorem,” c. ix.